DOTTEEEL. 5 



We at once saw how admirably suited to the habits of the species we were 

 in search of, this kind of ground was, and, moreover, that we would have no little 

 difficulty to contend with, in the event of our having to watch the bird to the nest, 

 as the upper plumage of the Dotterel harmonizes in colour with the yellowish- 

 brown carpeting of moss. First, however, we had to find the birds ; and, 

 accordingly, with this object in view, we slowly walked over the deep yielding 

 moss, towards the far, or west end of the ridge. 



"About half-past ten o'clock, as we were walking along in line, I first dis- 

 covered a Dotterel, running swiftly, about twenty yards in front of the gamekeeper. 

 It shortly afterwards rose and flew close past, and across our line of march, 

 uttering a low, plaintive, plover-like call — once heard, not easily to be forgotten. 

 Feilden and I agreed that it was the female bird, from the brightness of the chest- 

 nut coloring, which was distinctly visible as it passed us. We now marked the 

 place where I had first seen it, by laying one small grey stone on the top of a 

 larger, and after a short search for the other bird, in which we were not successful, 

 we went away again to the east end of the range. After an hour or so we 

 returned again to the west end, Feilden walking in the centre, and the keeper and 

 myself on each side, lower down the hill and a little in advance. On arriving 

 near the place, Feilden detected the female running a considerable way off 

 in front of him, and I saw the male bird, which ran from the vicinity of the nest, 

 or at least from where we supposed it to be, in a diametrically opposite direction 

 from that chosen by the female. We now made sure that the eggs or young 

 were not far distant ; while, at the same time, we learned that we had two most 

 cunning parents to circumvent. Far, indeed, were they from being the ' little 

 fools ' {morinelli), which Linnaeus named them. 



" After a consultation, it was agreed to leave me to watch, whilst Feilden 

 and the keeper again went ofl" to a distance. Accordingly, I lay down, partially 

 concealed by a hummocky piece of mossy ground, about fifty yards from the 

 place whence Feilden had seen the female run. The keeper afterwards told 

 me that I was absolutely invisible from a distance, the color of my clothes 

 harmonizing admirably with that of the yellowish-brown moss. For an hour I 

 remained almost, if not quite, immovable, and, at the end of that time, was 

 rewarded by seeing the female run rapidly up over the crest of the nearest ridge. 

 It became a difficult matter to watch her movements after she came down amongst 

 the hummocky ground, all the more so, as she took advantage of every grey stone 

 or inequality of the ground to dodge behind, and stooping low, Avith head pushed 

 out in front, when she crossed the higher places, just as I have seen a Corncrake 

 do when crossing open ground between two places of shelter. She must have 



